4th of July

We had special visitors for the 4th of July this year!!  My "little" brother Will and his amazing wife Val stayed with us a few days en route to England.  That makes sense right?  Ha!  They are leaving their home in Washington DC so my brother can go to grad school in England for five years.  Our families are so spread out across the country they are making a road trip to see everyone before they leave the country the end of August!  We were so happy they took time to stay with us!  Our plan was to run a 5k the morning of the 4th but they didn't arrive until 2:30 that morning so we decided to just sleep!  Lucky for us, they wanted to do some physical labor and we had a long list of things to accomplish before our big party that evening.  First, a BIG fire pit!  Matt acquired an oil barrel that a friend cut the top and bottom off of for us to put in the ground.  Val and Will were troopers and dug the hole with the boys.  With the 100+ degree weather, everyone was getting sweaty and tired quickly.  While they were doing that task, Matt was finishing the "corn hole" game he made from scratch and I was working on a pallet flag!  I found the idea on Pinterest and LOVE how it turned out!  I still want to "antique" it so it looks a little more rustic and not so bright and new...but that will have to wait.  I painted both sides so those traveling in either direction can see it!  It was the perfect addition to our roadside wagon wheel fixture.  Somewhere in the mix Will and Val took the time to take all four kids on a walk/run for a few miles.  They are pretty cool!  Totally out of character for me (ha), I started stressing out about the time left in the day before friends arrived for the party and the tasks on my list that needed to be completed!  Val and Will saved the day and were rock stars and dipped strawberries and marshmallows for me.  Everything came together beautifully just in time for our guests to arrive.

I nearly forgot to take pictures of the kids in their red, white and blue!  

I asked a handful of friends to bring a "patriotic" dessert to add to our dessert table!  I LOVE the variations that were made!  One of my favorite "accessories" is my marshmallow pop "stand".  I gave Matt two pieces of wood, told him what I needed and he totally made it perfect!  I think I will add "celebration" or something to the side in vinyl so I can use them for any occasion!  I think the red, white and blue strawberries might be my favorite treat on the table.  Every family also brought a side dish to share and their own meat to grill, so there was A LOT of pretty amazing food for the evening!

We enjoyed having so many of our friends over to celebrate!  I kept thinking, "why haven't we done this before?" Then I remembered we never had room to do it before!  I hope this is the first of many get togethers at our home!  If I counted right, we had 76 people over during the evening!  I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and had a great time! 

Me with my handsome brother!

Aren't they just the most adorable couple?

Elaine brought these crazy hats.  Matt wore his all night long....she made me wear one for this picture.

The stripe girls of the evening.

We had a lot of activities/games planned to keep everyone entertained: ping pong, corn hole, hobo golf, wiffle ball, bocce ball and volleyball.  Wiffle ball was specifically chosen for my brother.  He LOVES anything and everything baseball.  He was a trooper and played with the kids most of the evening.

Ella and Val were inseparable.  Or I should say Ella would not leave Val alone.  Val is one super duper auntie!  

Ella's patriotic nails.  Thank you Lauren!

We enjoyed a gorgeous sunset and no rain and only a slight breeze.  I was very worried about the evening storm that was in the forecast but it never arrived.  We had a perfect evening.  In lieu of fireworks we borrowed a projector and watched a movie on the side of the house.  The kids thought this was so great!  

The day was amazing and wouldn't have been a success with out Will and Val!  I am so glad they were able to celebrate with us and meet our "Nebraska family".  I think we have to do this every year!  Thank you to everyone who came!

Happy birthday, America!